The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-21

street brokers and who themselves, occasion
ally make quiet deal in the speculative mar
ket. Such inductions will never do. The
convert who thinks he can read his title clear
must be permitted to do so without regard to
the moral status of the man who helped him
to establish his claim. Holding, then,
that the fifteen Tennesseeans as fairly
freed from the bonds of Satan as though
apriest with apostolic authority to perform
the act had aided in breaking the chains, it
remains for moralists to decide upon the de-
gree of the preachers guilt. According to
the accounts he could not have Eeld the re-
vival meetings without money; without the
cow he would have had money, and in that
event fifteen souls now travelling triumph
antly towards paradise would still be in dark
ness and might be forever lost. The evangel-
ist, it must be supposed, periled his own
salvation by his surreptitious of get
ting the cow; but the point in question is:
Would it have been better that he should
make his own calling and election sure by
leaving the cow with her rightful owner and
thereby risking the safety of fifteen souls9
In other words, is the soul of an evangelist of
more value than fifteen ordinary Tennessee
soulsR This is question whose answer must
depend somewhat upon the professional abil-
ity of the revivalist; but inasmuch as this
one accomplished so great work between
two days and before the sheriff got there it
WILL perhaps, be answered in the affirmative.
The argument against him will be that he
should not have taken such risk for a paltry
dozen so of sinners when, by keeping out of
Jail he might have saved so many
more. To this he may make reply
that the time to reap is when the harvest is
ripe, and that it was then never that he
must labor. But, whatever the conclusion
may be on this point, there is another view
of the matter to be considered. The fifteen
souls saved may not outweigh the one soul
risked in their behalf, but they are certainly
of more value collectively than one cow.
This, of course morally speaking Their
material worth would possibly not be suffi-
cient offset to the owner of the animal for its
value to him a mixer. Assuming that if
any human being is of more value than many
sparrows. fifteen from Tennessee must be of
greater Importance than single cow, it fol-
lows necessarily, that the moral obliquity of
the evangelist in setting the souls and the
cow in balance must be considerably les
sened. 1t may even be possible that the
Court Of Last Resort in such cases will deal so
leniently with this too Jealous laborer in the
spiritual vineyard that the gates through
which the fifteen are ticketed will not be
closed against him. Particularly may this be
the case if it shall develop that he was put
ting into practice the communistic theory
which many good people tell US is the only
true and honest method of existence on this
sphere, and was committing an offense against
merely human laws by taking what he thought
to be his own share of the worlds goods. On
the whole it would, perhaps, be well for inter-
mediate tribunals to postpone their decisions
on the question until all sides have been heard,
or at least until the relative value of cows and
sinners south of the Ohio is better understood.